Intel Core i9-12900HK With RTX 3080 Ti Review: MSI's GE76 Raider Laptop Screams
MSI GE76 Raider: System Benchmarks, Game Performance And Battery Life
Before running any of our benchmarks, we apply all of the latest Windows and driver updates to the system we are testing. Our particular MSI GE76 Raider sample shipped with Windows 11 Pro 21H2 and needed very little updating, save for the latest Game Ready GeForce drivers. Other than applying updates (like most consumers would), we run all of our tests with out-of-the-box settings. Our goal is to test the system as it ships, but after auto-updating, to accurately reflect what buyers can expect from a retail experience.
The MSI GE76 Raider has an additional wrinkle in that it gives users the ability to configure the discrete GPU to operate in a hybrid mode, which switches between the iGPU and dGPU depending on the workload, or in an always-on mode that provides the best performance. All of our benchmarks were run set with the discrete graphics mode enabled, except for our battery life tests where we evaluated both modes.
When we first evaluated desktop Alder Lake-based 12th Gen Core processors, we saw strong single and lightly threaded performance. The same holds true with mobile Alder Lake-H. The Core i9-12900HK-powered MSI GE76 Raider put up the best Speedometer score we've seen from a notebooks to date.
Despite being powered by the same Core i9-12900K processor, the MSI GE76 Raider can't quite catch the upcoming Alienware x17 R2. Versus all of the previous-gen Intel processor or the Ryzen mobile processors, however, there was no contest. The Core i9-12900HK offered the best single and multi-thread performance of the bunch.
Geekbench tells essentially the same story as Cinebench. Here, the MSI GE76 Raider has no trouble dispatching all of the previous-gen processors, from both Intel and AMD, and only the Alienware x17 R2 is faster. In terms of single and multi-threaded performance, so far, the Core i9-12900HK is unmatched.
Due to its particularly strong Digital Content Creation and Essentials scores, the MSI GE76 Raider with Core i9-12900HK and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti puts up the best PCMark 10 score we've from a notebook yet. The Alder Lake-powered Alienware machine drops in just behind the MSI machine, but actually offered a better Productivity score, most likely due to the Alienware machine's 64GB of RAM and super-high-bandwidth RAID 0 SSD configuration, which offered over 13GB/s transfers.
When backed by the Core i9-12900HK, the MSI GE76 Raider lets the 175W GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (1,590MHz max boost) in the machine really stretch its legs and the system takes the pole position in the Time Spy benchmark.
Next up, let's take a look at the Extreme preset for the punishing 3DMark Fire Strike test. This DirectX 11 test has been around for a while, but it's still pretty challenging.
We saw a similar trend in the 3DMark Fire Strike test. Once again, the MSI GE76 Raider with Core i9-12900HK and RTX 3080 Ti takes the top spot. Note that the Alienware x17 R2, while powered by a similar 3080 Ti Laptop GPU with a similar TDP, has a lower max boost clock of 1,455MHz.
Lastly, the Port Royal test uses DirectX Ray Tracing (DXR) to illuminate a scene...
DXR hardware is a requirement for this test, so we don't have quite as many machines represented. Still, it wouldn't have mattered much, because the MSI GE76 Raider with Core i9-12900HK and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti took the top spot yet again.
Once again we see the MSI GE76 Raider taking the top spot. This system's flagship processor and GPU offer some of the best gaming performance we have ever seen in a notebook, bar none.
The MSI GE76 Raider completes its clean-sweep of the game tests, taking the pole position in the Tomb Raider benchmark as well. Like the other titles, this one is heavily influenced by CPU performance at 1080p. As such, the Core i9-12900HK, in conjunction with the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, propel the machine into the lead.
As we mentioned earlier, we tested the Alder LakeH--powered MSI GE76 Raider in both hybrid and discrete graphics modes. When in discrete mode, the system lasted a little over 2 hours, which placed it near the bottom of the charts. When in hybrid graphics mode, however, which will dynamically switch between the iGPU and dGPU as necessary, the machine sees a big battery life boost and lasts a bit longer than 4.7 hours.
Let's see how it handles gaming battery life via PCMark's Gaming test, though...
This is a far more strenuous battery life test that cranks on the entire system, to simulate an actual gaming workload. Here, the MSI GE76 Raider with Core i9-12900HK and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti land somewhere in the middle of pack, offering a bit longer than an 1.5 hours of untethered mobile gaming.
How does a notebook with a beefy 99.9Wh battery not offer all-day battery life? This is why. With such powerful hardware in the system, a machine like the MSI GE76 Raider can pull over 250 watts from the wall while gaming. What's also interesting is how the 12th Gen Core i9-12900K behaves when placed until a heavy load all on its own. When running Cinebench for example (as we did here), the CPU will run flat-out for the first few seconds -- as you can see here it pull 146 watts from the wall at first. Then as the chip heats up, clocks and voltages ramp down, and peak power drops commensurately.
The MSI GE76 Raider has an additional wrinkle in that it gives users the ability to configure the discrete GPU to operate in a hybrid mode, which switches between the iGPU and dGPU depending on the workload, or in an always-on mode that provides the best performance. All of our benchmarks were run set with the discrete graphics mode enabled, except for our battery life tests where we evaluated both modes.
ATTO Disk Benchmark
The ATTO disk benchmark is a fairly quick and simple test which measures read/write bandwidth and IOPS across a range of different data sizes. While we don't typically compare these results across multiple machines, it's useful to gauge whether a particular notebook's storage subsystem is up to snuff.Here's something you don't see often in a notebook -- at least not yet. Our test system was configured with a pair of identical 2TB Samsung PCIe Gen 4 solid state drives, operating independently as an OS volume (drive C:) and a Data volume (drive D:). In the ATTO Disk benchmark the drives broke the~ 6.2GB/s mark in the read test, with ~4.6GB/s writes. These aren't the highest bandwidth numbers we've seen from an SSD, but with most notebook SSDs hamstrung by PCIe Gen 3 bandwidth, it's good to see the MSI GE76 Raider exploiting PCIe Gen 4.
Speedometer 2.0 Browser Benchmark
We use BrowserBench.org's Speedometer test to gauge our web experiences, which takes a holistic look at web application performance. This test automatically loads and runs several sample web apps from ToDoMVC.com using the most popular web development frameworks around, including React, Angular, Ember.js, and even vanilla JavaScript. This test is a better example of how systems cope with real web applications, as opposed to a pure JavaScript compute test like JetStream. All tests were performed using the latest version of Chrome.
When we first evaluated desktop Alder Lake-based 12th Gen Core processors, we saw strong single and lightly threaded performance. The same holds true with mobile Alder Lake-H. The Core i9-12900HK-powered MSI GE76 Raider put up the best Speedometer score we've seen from a notebooks to date.
Cinebench R23 Rendering Benchmark
This is the latest 3D rendering benchmark from Maxon, based on the Cinema 4D R23 rendering engine. We tested both single-threaded and multi-threaded tests on all of the notebooks represented here...
Despite being powered by the same Core i9-12900K processor, the MSI GE76 Raider can't quite catch the upcoming Alienware x17 R2. Versus all of the previous-gen Intel processor or the Ryzen mobile processors, however, there was no contest. The Core i9-12900HK offered the best single and multi-thread performance of the bunch.
Geekbench 5 Benchmarks
Geekbench is a cross-platform benchmark that simulates real world processing workloads in image processing and particle physics scenarios. We tested the notebooks featured here in Geekbench's single and multi-core workloads. It measures single-threaded performance allowing a single core to stretch its legs, and multi-threaded throughput to put all cores under a heavy load.
Geekbench tells essentially the same story as Cinebench. Here, the MSI GE76 Raider has no trouble dispatching all of the previous-gen processors, from both Intel and AMD, and only the Alienware x17 R2 is faster. In terms of single and multi-threaded performance, so far, the Core i9-12900HK is unmatched.
PCMark 10 Whole System Benchmarks
PCMark 10 uses a mix of real-world applications and simulated workloads to establish how well a given system performs productivity tasks, including image and video editing, web browsing, and OpenOffice document editing. While these scores appear to be all over the place, the systems are sorted by their overall PCMark score, which is the third (gray) bar in each cluster.
3DMark Graphics And GPU Tests
3DMark has several different graphics tests which focus on different types of systems. We start with Time Spy, which is 3DMark's headline benchmark. This test presents a pretty significant challenge for the system's CPU and GPU using DirectX 12's API...
When backed by the Core i9-12900HK, the MSI GE76 Raider lets the 175W GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (1,590MHz max boost) in the machine really stretch its legs and the system takes the pole position in the Time Spy benchmark.
Next up, let's take a look at the Extreme preset for the punishing 3DMark Fire Strike test. This DirectX 11 test has been around for a while, but it's still pretty challenging.
We saw a similar trend in the 3DMark Fire Strike test. Once again, the MSI GE76 Raider with Core i9-12900HK and RTX 3080 Ti takes the top spot. Note that the Alienware x17 R2, while powered by a similar 3080 Ti Laptop GPU with a similar TDP, has a lower max boost clock of 1,455MHz.
Lastly, the Port Royal test uses DirectX Ray Tracing (DXR) to illuminate a scene...
DXR hardware is a requirement for this test, so we don't have quite as many machines represented. Still, it wouldn't have mattered much, because the MSI GE76 Raider with Core i9-12900HK and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti took the top spot yet again.
FarCry 5 Game Benchmarks
It's time for some actual game tests. We'll start with Ubisoft's FarCry 5, which takes the franchise to Montana with lush environments and incredible graphics fidelity. We ran this laptop through the built-in benchmark with Ultra Quality settings, alongside all of the other systems in our database.At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we saw more of the same in FarCry 5. This game is fairly CPU-bound at 1080p, so the combination of a fast Core i9-12900HK and NVIDIA's most powerful laptop GPU propel the system out into the lead.
Gears 5 Game Benchmarks
Gears 5 is a popular title on the Xbox and PC alike, and on top of looking great, it's a blast to play. We used the High image-quality preset at 1920x1080, same as the other games, to test Gears 5.
Once again we see the MSI GE76 Raider taking the top spot. This system's flagship processor and GPU offer some of the best gaming performance we have ever seen in a notebook, bar none.
Middle Earth: Shadow Of War Tests
Middle Earth: Shadow of War is a fun and and beautiful title set in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe. To test the game's performance relative to other systems, we set the resolution to 1920x1080 and turned the visuals up to the High preset. The frame rates here are the average reported by the built-in benchmark.
The MSI GE76 Raider with its Core i9-12900HK and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti finished in the top spot yet again, well out in front of any of the previous-gen platforms. The similarly configured Alienware x17 R2 is the only system that can compete.
Shadow Of The Tomb Raider Benchmarks
The finale in the rebooted Tomb Raider trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is easily the best-looking of the bunch. It's also brimming with Tobii eye-tracking hardware support, and leading edge graphics technologies. To test this game out, we again turned the visuals up to High and tested at the Full-HD resolution of 1920x1080.
The MSI GE76 Raider completes its clean-sweep of the game tests, taking the pole position in the Tomb Raider benchmark as well. Like the other titles, this one is heavily influenced by CPU performance at 1080p. As such, the Core i9-12900HK, in conjunction with the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, propel the machine into the lead.
Battery Life And Power Tests
We run a custom 1080p HD video loop test developed in-house, to prove out battery life with our test group of machines. In all tests, Windows Quiet Hours / Focus Assist has been enabled and the displays are calibrated with lux meters on pure white screens to as close to 115 lux as possible. For the average laptop this is somewhere between a 40-60 percent brightness setting.
Let's see how it handles gaming battery life via PCMark's Gaming test, though...
This is a far more strenuous battery life test that cranks on the entire system, to simulate an actual gaming workload. Here, the MSI GE76 Raider with Core i9-12900HK and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti land somewhere in the middle of pack, offering a bit longer than an 1.5 hours of untethered mobile gaming.
How does a notebook with a beefy 99.9Wh battery not offer all-day battery life? This is why. With such powerful hardware in the system, a machine like the MSI GE76 Raider can pull over 250 watts from the wall while gaming. What's also interesting is how the 12th Gen Core i9-12900K behaves when placed until a heavy load all on its own. When running Cinebench for example (as we did here), the CPU will run flat-out for the first few seconds -- as you can see here it pull 146 watts from the wall at first. Then as the chip heats up, clocks and voltages ramp down, and peak power drops commensurately.
